A very GOTG Halloween
by sharkinterviewee
Summary: 1. Peter tells the Guardians a ghost story, and things do not go well. 2. Peter and Gamora go to a Terran movie theater to watch a horror movie, and Peter discovers that scary movies have gotten A LOT more realistic since the 80s. 3. Drax, Peter, and pumpkin carving (prompt fills for GOTGhalloween)
1. Ghost stories

There he was, setting the scene, having everyone on the seat of their pants as he continued his spooky, spooky story. Even Groot looked scared when Peter started making the creaky, eerie er-ehr-EHR of the empty rocking chair, and Groot was still in that 'too cool to be scared by anything phase'. Sure, Mantis was wide eyed too, but she wasn't exactly hard to scare, so Peter wasn't using her facial expression to judge how well his story was going over with the group.

"But… no one was there," Peter continued, leaning forward as he looked around the circle of his friends and family. Rocket was munching on those crunchy bugs and even _he_ looked entertained. "I thought it was all in my head, but then I heard this… scratching sound coming up the staircase behind me, followed by a thump, like something was clawing its way up the stairs and dragging its body behind it. Or dragging something. I didn't even close the door behind me. Left it open just a crack. And when I turned around-"

"Did you kill it?" Drax asked, totally interrupting his storytelling momentum.

Peter groaned and made a face, "Dude, what do I keep telling you about interrupting. I'm not at that part yet. Besides, you can't kill ghosts."

"Ghosts are not real," Gamora scoffed, sharpening her knives to make a show of just how uninterested she was in story time. She was still there though.

Peter gave her a look of absolute betrayal. He expected interruptions from Drax, Rocket, Mantis, and even Groot. But not from her.

"Uh! How would you know?! You've met a literal god before. Who's to say ghosts aren't real?"

Gamora was a bit taken aback, because nobody challenged her beliefs like Peter. She's never met anyone who challenged her already set automatic beliefs like Peter Quill did. Most of the time it was challenging the belief that she didn't deserve to be loved, the belief that she didn't deserve to be happy, that the team was better out without her, that she was a burden, the belief that she didn't deserve their family.

Nobody challenged her set in stones beliefs like Peter did. He made her examine why it was she thought that way, and challenged her internal belief that she didn't deserve to be loved.

But sometimes it came out like this. Gamora's automatic response was that ghosts didn't exist. And _his_ response was to ask her how she would know, and brought up the fact that she's met supposedly unreal beings before.

When faced with the question how she would know ghosts aren't real, the only response she could come up with was _I don't know, they just aren't._

She'd never thought about that before. She has encountered many 'mythical' creatures that other cultures considered to be fiction and fairy tales. She has met beings that were the stuff of legends back on her home planet. How could she say that spirits of the dead didn't just… disappear like she'd always _known,_ when she also knew that wraiths of the lake didn't exist deep in the woods as a little girl, because no sentient creature could breathe underwater like that, when Gamora, as an adult, had encountered many species who lived their entire lives underwater and needed to bring an apparatus in order to survive in oxygen and nitrogen rich environments.

She'd never even thought of it that way before.

Peter challenged her beliefs like no one else, the way she's never challenged her beliefs herself.

And sometimes it was over ridiculous topics like ghosts when everyone knew that they just weren't real.

"Your father was a celestial, not a literal god," she told him disinterestedly. "He had some… impressive powers, but he wasn't a god. Your argument is moot."

Peter rolled his eyes. "I wasn't talking about him. Golden boy and his brother Loki call themselves the god of mischief and thunder. And you've met people who have access to alternate dimensions. You can't just dismiss ghosts as not real."

It had been almost a year since the guardians last saw Thor, and Peter still preferred to _not_ say his name out of a jealousy that was completely childish and actually kinda adorable.

Gamora frowned- as much as she hated to admit it, he'd brought up some semi-good points.

"Oh! Oh! That T'challa dude! From earth!" Peter exclaimed, hitting her on the shoulder in excitement. "Remember our little saved the universe bonfire and everybody ended up drinking and sharing about our messed up childhoods and family issues? And he talked about the jaguar thing! You heard what he learned from that vision thing where he talked to all the dead people, and it was true! So that means that dead spirits, or ghosts, do exist somewhere on some plane of reality. Who's to say they can't cross over? Dead ghosts in the land of the living!"

"Stop it!" Gamora shouted, clutching her head, hoping to block out any further points he'd like to add. "This is supposed to be a fun story time, not making me question fundamental beliefs and causing existential crises! I came out here to hear a fun story, not to have my core beliefs called into question!"


	2. Horror movies

Gamora was up for the challenge, so to speak, when he invited her. Tis the season, right?

After returning to Terra, Peter was eager to explore the things and traditions he remembered as a child, especially the ones surrounding his favorite holiday.

Peter actually had to 'look up' some traditions on the Terran internet, since he wasn't sure of the exact ways that adults celebrated everything about his favorite child-friendly holiday, but she was happy to entertain his whims, if only putting on a pseudo-reluctance at his most ridiculous requests before smiling and shaking her head with an eye roll.

So yes, she accepted Peter's invitation to go watch an earth horror movie in a Terran movie theater. (Something he'd informed her he'd never gotten to do himself as a child since horror movies weren't meant for 8 year olds, and as such was unduly excited as an adult in his 30s going to watch his first scary movie in theaters).

* * *

Peter's not gonna lie.

A part of him just wanted to take her to this scary movie in hopes that she'd be startled enough to grab onto his arm so he could protect her.

But he knew this was Gamora, the deadliest woman in the galaxy, and nothing on earth could make her flinch, much less scare her. He wasn't even sure she _had_ a startle reflex. And he knew she'd never want or need him to protect her.

A part of him wondered how she would react to him grabbing onto her arm so she would protect _him_ after an unexpected scare.

If she would roll her eyes at what was an obvious attempt at more physical contact.

If she would bat him off and whisper harshly that she was trying to watch the movie and he was distracting her.

If she wouldn't react at all. Just freeze up at the sudden contact since they still weren't, like, an item yet, even after they'd both acknowledged their unspoken thing.

They were in a tentative stage of not quite a relationship yet, yet much closer than they had been before she admitted their unspoken thing out loud too.

Gamora actually initiated them dancing together sometimes. And smiled at him so freely now, apropos of nothing. Just because she looked his way.

Still.

They hadn't even kissed yet, so part of Peter was worried that she'd react badly to him latching onto her arm in fear. They weren't officially dating, though seeing a movie together, just the two of them, was a pretty datesy thing to do.

Part of him wondered if she'd just stiffen and he'd have to pull away if he grabbed her arm in the middle of the movie.

Part of him wondered if she'd try to suppress a smile, wrap her arm around his shoulder, and pull him closer.

* * *

He knew Gamora wouldn't want him to protect her in reaction to this horror movie, but maybe if he wanted her to protect him while they watched it that might actually be okay.

* * *

Peter knew he wasn't immune to jump scares. But other than that, he figured he wouldn't actually be afraid, and he'd have to play up any fear to have an excuse to hold onto her.

He remembered being so freaked out as a kid by the most unrealistic costumes on the screen when he snuck downstairs after his bedtime when his mom was watching a scary movie.

Now he was an adult, had seen some shit- actual monsters- and knew fake movie costumes wouldn't freak him out.

Besides, how much more realistic could earth scary movies have gotten since the 80s?

* * *

Turns out a lot more realistic. Like holy crap.

At the first jump scare Peter actually jumped back into his seat, which was only a sign of what more was to come. When he looked over at Gamora to check her response she didn't look scared, but her eyes had widened in surprise as they watched the screen.

* * *

He wasn't even playing it up when he grabbed onto her lower arm to hold on when the music started getting eerie and building a horrible tension that he swore filled his whole body.

Gamora looked over, regarding him carefully. Other than that, nothing.

Peter flinched at the crescendo of the music as a shadow darted across the screen.

He reluctantly pulled his hand away from her arm once the moment had passed.

* * *

When the three main characters were in the middle of the most banal conversation that took place in the broad daylight, and was probably the least scary moment in the movie so far, Gamora nonchalantly stretched and let her arm settle across his shoulders.

When Peter looked up at her she very pointedly wasn't looking at him, laser focused on the super boring moment on screen. He could tell that she was worried about doing the whole arm thing though, not sure if it was okay or not.

Peter smiled and moved into her touch, scooting closer to the side of his seat and really snuggling up into her, resting his head on her shoulder.

Gamora exhaled a little breath of relief and tightened the arm she had wrapped around him.

Oh yeah. Best date ever.

* * *

"You were so scared," Gamora teased him afterwards as they exited the theater, jabbing him in the upper arm just like a kid would. Except Gamora was much stronger than the average kid, so her jabbing while she gave him a ribbing actually kinda hurt. But he was too fond of her enthusiasm to complain about how a poke from her was actually painful.

"Jump scares, Gamora, they're called jump scares. It's an involuntary startle reflex humans have. It's a Terran reflex that Terran movies exploit to make money. You know we've been through much scarier situations together. All the bad guys we've taken down, interstellar space creatures, all the dangerous 'probably gonna die'jobs we've taken- much scarier than a movie. But holy shit that black demon thing was terrifying," he admitted, and Gamora laughed out loud. "Like what the hell! When I would sneak downstairs when mom was watching a scary movie after I was supposed to be asleep- those movies were scary back then, but like they weren't super realistic- like the evil robots were made of tinfoil and the scary monsters were people in rubber suits! They were people in costumes! That wasn't a costume! So much happened to horror movies while I was gone! I didn't expect them to be that creepy and realistic! Holy shit!"

"Peter, you've seen how much earth has evidently advanced since your childhood. And you have seen the visual editing effects they used in your everyday life on almost every screen your ship is equipped with. You yourself have been amazed and astounded by cellular telephones and their song carrying capacity-"

"Millions of songs," Peter whispered reverently.

Gamora rolled her eyes. "You have been gushing about earth's technological advances this whole time. How were you taken by surprise when that's all you talk about?"

"But I didn't expect them to do it to movies!"

* * *

"What did you think? Did you like it?" Peter asked her once he'd finished being mind blown.

"It was fine. The intermittent low pitched frequencies were a bit distracting, though."

"Huh?" Peter looked at her like she just spouted off utter nonsense when no, that was his forte.

Gamora gave him a stern look for playing dumb, taking it as him trying to be humorous or something. "Don't pretend you didn't hear it. I felt you reacting to it. That's how I knew when to start rubbing your shoulder, because you always got all tense when the frequencies started playing again. Eventually I just started doing it every time they came back on. Did you not notice me doing that?"

And shit yeah he noticed. Gamora rubbing his shoulder was probably his favorite part of the movie. She always started doing it just before the scariest parts happened- like she was psychic and knew what was coming.

"Dude, I literally have no idea what you're talking about. You mean the music? The creepy music?"

"Peter, I know the difference between music and sound frequencies. If I was talking about the music, I would have said the word music. I only found them mildly distracting- Rocket would've hated the low frequency noises though. I thought that they hurt your ears- you always got all tense when they came back on."

"I'm telling you, I have literally no idea what you're talking about. I swear I'm not messing with you. You know you have better hearing that me. Whatever you're talking about, I wasn't hearing."

"But I felt you react," she said, like he just wasn't getting it. "The sound came from the speakers, and was placed at points integral to the movie, so why would they intentionally put in sounds that the average human would not be able to hear in a movie, huh? Your whole body always got all tense whenever they were playing- I only started rubbing your shoulders because they were suddenly tense only when the low frequencies were present. You reacted to the noise- don't tell me you didn't hear it."

* * *

They settled that argument by looking it up. On the internet.

They were both a little surprised to find out about Terran's use of infrasound in scary movies- frequencies too low to be picked up by the human ear, but physically unsettled human beings, the sound waves inducing feelings of anxiety and fear, and even respiratory difficulties. The unheard but physical tension causing sounds were apparently a cinematic trick humans used in horror movies to make the audience more scared than they would be otherwise.

"Humans are weird," Gamora said once she finished reading all the information, finally accepting that no, Peter could not in fact hear the sounds that he kept reacting to throughout the movie.

"I know," Peter replied.

So freakin' weird.

* * *

 **AN: Yes, that stuff about infrasound is true**


	3. Jack O' Lanterns

"Only the biggest, most bulbous roots were chosen," Drax continues, enjoying this sharing of traditions from his culture with his family of the Guardians. Describing this family tradition he used to partake in with Kamaria was a treasured memory of happy times. "Once at home, they would be hollowed out, and the children would carve a frightening image of a face into the flesh of the fruit, and a candle placed inside. The beacons would be set out that evening, to mark the end of the hunting season."

"Huh, that's a surprisingly child friendly tradition," Gamora remarks, still very interested. She doesn't remember much about traditions from her homeworld, but was always fascinated when Drax or Peter brought up stories from theirs. Drax usually had a firmer grasp on his planet's culture and celebrations than their captain did, since Peter was a child when he left earth, when Drax had an adult's interpretation of his planet's celebrations. Usually, though, Drax's culture tended to have rituals geared towards fighting and hunting, not… mild activities like fruit carving in celebration.

"Oh! Me and my mom carved faces in pumpkins on Halloween too!" Peter eagerly chimed in. "This big ol' orange thing, and we'd have to scoop out the goopy innards that were so messy," he mimes the act of scooping out gross pumpkin innards and slopping them on the floor with a grin, even though the rest of them probably didn't need a visual demonstration. "Then we'd carve scary faces in them and put a candle in them too! We did that on my planet too!"

He's still surprised by the similarities between human cultures and alien cultures to this day. Of all the things to have the same idea about- Jack O' Lanterns was what their species agreed on?

Drax looks a bit perturbed, or maybe puzzled is the right word. "Your _mother_ made these as well?"

"Yeah, why?" Peter pouts. "You didn't make your own scary fruit face when you were helping Kamaria with hers? I thought you said it was a family activity."

"Yes, the fruit carving was a family activity, but only small children made the beacons out of fruit," Drax explains. "Making a fruit beacon was a child's version of the tradition. The other family members would each pick the biggest skulls from their kills that season and make their beacon out of that. That's what a beacon is. You place a candle in a skull and use that for celebration to mark the end of a hunt. Adults and older children all made their beacons out of skulls. Only the smallest ones who were too young to go on hunts made their beacons from fruit flesh. To include them in the holiday celebrations."

Peter blinks, cause yeah, that tracked. He was thinking it was weird how nonviolent that tradition was when seriously every tradition from Drax's homeworld had violence or killing/hunting involved.

"Yeah, we didn't do that on earth. No hunting at all- not when it came to pumpkin carving. And Jack O' Lanterns," he starts, trying to think of the memories he had saved up from childhood to best explain it (as accurately as he could, at least). "Our beacons- they were only ever made of fruit, for everybody. I guess it was more like celebrating the end of a harvest than the end of a hunt."

"Ah, I see," Drax says in that voice that tells Peter that no, he really doesn't. "Then your mother carving the visage of a beast into a sizable fruit would have brought pride to your family at the end of a harvest," the Destroyer nods to himself. "I understand Halloween now," he proudly proclaims.

Peter doesn't bother trying to correct him on that.

It was close enough.


End file.
